AkoVictoria 2011 Presentation Abstracts

Encouraging excellence in teaching: Showcasing teaching success in FCA

Vicky Mabin(p), James Richard, Heike Schänzel, Robyn Moore, Marina Dobrovolskaya
The Showcasing Teaching Excellence project aimed to develop a highly accessible collection of resources to help commerce teachers improve their teaching and enhance student-teacher engagement. We started by interviewing many of FCA's best teachers and collected together their ideas, strategies, and insights which are (to become) available via the website, in print, and through video-clips of classroom teaching. In addition to the teachers' views, third year students enrolled in a project management course took part in focus group conversations to reflect on one particular aspect - group work. The presentation will provide an overview of the project results and resources.

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Teaching via the body

Bronwyn Tweddle
By teaching practical skills before historical context and theory, students are better able to grasp concepts as they can link it to a personal, physical experience. Through doing, the students come up with their own questions - and are more likely to actively absorb material provided in response to their own query, because it seems more relevant than something deemed to be important by the teacher. They also take a more active role in class discussion. Because their experience can't be 'wrong' they feel confident discussing that, whereas they may fear making errors regarding concepts or history. Practical work assists them in making comparisons between concepts and encourages experimentation with applications in other contexts. In effect, we cover the same material as we would in a lecture prior to the work, but comprehension and retention is better. My examples will be discipline-specific, but the idea has a broader application.

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How do interventions in first year chemistry classes affect communication and critical thinking skills

Suzanne Boniface, Amanda Gilbert
Students' evaluations of their development of critical thinking and communication skills in CHEM113 and CHEM114 courses have shown little or no improvement over recent offerings. This finding has been replicated across the University (Bowden and Sutherland, 2010) but, in these cases, has occurred despite the inclusion of new learning and assessment opportunities designed to encourage the development of these graduate attributes. This has led us to question how students understand critical thinking and communication in chemistry and to explore these ideas with them. In a survey and in focus groups of both courses, students were questioned about their learning experiences and workload as well as the development of these skills. The results of the surveys have been collated and analysed and provided interesting insight, not just about the skills in question but about the courses as a whole. This has influenced the development of the courses in 2011. These results and our response to them will be discussed.

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What factors determine the effectiveness of tutors in tutorials?

David Mason
This research is aimed at improving the student experience in tutorials. All students do tutorials but their role in learning is generally underestimated. In fact this work suggests that tutorials are at least as important as lectures in enabling learning, yet most Schools devote remarkably little attention to them. The research interviewed students and tutors and lecturers to find out what worked, what didn't work and what could be made better. The outcome is a series of recommendations for improving how tutorials are organised, what happens in tutorial, how tutors are trained, how lecturers and administrators can add to the quality of tutorials. The main finding is that the perceptions of tutors and lectures need to be changed, and students need to be educated about what to expect from tutorials and how to get the best from them.

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Developing Scholarly Habits: Outcomes of a Pilot Programme with Early Career Academics

Kathryn Sutherland
The 2010 Developing Scholarly Habits (DSH) programme aimed to help early career academics to: increase their confidence in and the quality of their research and teaching; improve their time management skills and work-life balance; and increase their sense of workplace satisfaction. The programme comprised two off-site retreats, a daily writing log, peer mentoring, group meetings and customised workshops, and one-on-one coaching and mentoring. Research into the programme's effectiveness included pre- and post-programme questionnaires, individual interviews, recorded group meetings, and writing log analysis. The most encouraging findings include a nearly threefold increase in submission of research outputs to scholarly outlets, significantly improved work-life balance and increased work-place satisfaction, and a deepening awareness of the mind's and body's needs at times of stress.

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Engaging learners; a pedagogical approach to the use of digital technologies

Louise Starkey(p), Brenda Service(p), Kate Thornton(p)
Students in graduate diploma of teaching (early childhood, primary or secondary) have the option of studying at a distance through the Blackboard learning platform to enable them to remain within their community while learning to teach. The course coordinators of EPOL301 will share how they developed their online course so that content was not 'delivered', rather the learning activities were underpinned with pedagogical approaches aligned with learning theory relevant in a digital age.

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A Tale of Two Cities: The case for blended learning for GIS at Masters level for Victoria and Canterbury

Mairead De Roiste(p), Femke Reitsma
Improving technologies have facilitated high-quality, remote teaching. Students can be either physically or virtually in the same location as the lecturer. This paper covers the benefits to institutions, staff and students of cross-institutional collaboration in teaching GIS (Geographic Information Science) at Masters level for Victoria and Canterbury. The paper also presents an outline of the collaborative aspects of the recently launched Canterbury Masters in GIS (MGIS) programme, discussing the experiences thus far and highlighting some of the challenges. Victoria contribute by providing one Masters course and teaching into core courses and benefits through access to a number of the courses for local students.
The MGIS began earlier this year with a week-long residential course. The course coincided with the Christchurch earthquake. Consequently, this paper also explores the impact of such an event on the joint delivery of the programme and the potential for blended learning following a disaster.

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Education Outside the Classroom

Liz Thevenard
This session explores education outdoors and the pedagogy and contexts used to build student teacher confidence and competence. The session identifies key principles, links to the New Zealand curriculum and explores the value of experiential learning and place based education. Several case studies will be used to illustrate key points and their application to the school environment.

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Distance delivery of marketing courses - insights and takeaways

Peter Thirkell(p), Rochelle Savage
The School of Marketing and International Business has been offering various of its undergraduate courses for the last six years, with the goal of eventually being able to offer a full suite of eight distance courses towards a Graduate Diploma in Marketing. Insights and learning about course development, delivery mechanisms and insights on student learning will be discussed. Each course has a DVD and a simple software application that organises the content into course modules, plus a connection to Blackboard for announcements, collaborative discussions, and supplementary materials. Each course also has a course controller and dedicated tutors who provide a high level of subject support. Student feedback generally is very favourable, and the School has developed views and perspectives based on the experience of some hundreds of students completing the courses.

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Structured group and individual learning through studio time

Liz Melchior
While there is an established field of research regarding self regulated learning in tertiary settings, there is a paucity of literature regarding unsupervised timetabled course work. This paper presents the results of a study investigating the design and implementation of studio time within pre-service teacher education courses at Victoria University. Perceptions from a sample of course co-ordinators and students from Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Graduate Diploma courses were gathered from interview data. Findings highlight the importance of purposeful, structured and relevant task design, and opportunities for practical application of theoretical perspectives. Implications and recommendations for future course planning will be discussed.

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Student research skill development

Mary Roberts and Deb Laurs
This session will present a progress report on Mary Robert's L&T project on developing undergraduate research skills at VUW: reviewing UK, US, Australian and New Zealand literature on the impact of UG research skills development on student progression and graduate attributes; outlining a framework of undergraduate research skills development, and suggesting ways in which SLSS,UTDC and the library can support academics wishing to incorporate research skills development into their undergraduate teaching.

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Supporting academically at risk students: A proactive approach

Eric Chong
This project arose from concern over high failure rates observed in the MGMT 101 course. The project's aim was to proactively identify academically 'at risk' students and ascertain the reason(s) for their poor performance. The three most frequently cited reasons given for failing a core BCA subject were: 1. not wanting to seek help early, 2. not knowing where to get help, and 3. university requires more independent study. There was an over-representation of Maori/Pacific Islands and Asian students securing an 'E' grade in a core BCA subject when compared with the general student population while NZ European students were under-represented. The project recommendations include: 1. communicating and emphasising the difference between secondary school and university academic requirements, 2. completion of a compulsory initial assessment for 'at risk' students as a condition for being placed on a course.

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Targeted tutorials to support Maori and Pasifika students

Megan Evans and Alice Te Punga Sommerville
SEFTMS is in its second year of offering targeted tutorials, together with other academic and pastoral support, to Maori and Pasifika students enrolled in the school's 100-level courses. The programme received start-up funding from 'Strengthening Pathways' and continues through a school funding commitment. Maori and Pasifika students are offered the opportunity to enrol in tutorials targeted specifically to them, ideally led by a Maori/Pasifika tutor. A part-time Maori and Pasifika liason works actively with course co-ordinators to facilitate student success through personal contact, study sessions, and other follow-up. The presentation will give an overview of the project's goals, strategies, and outcomes from the 2010 academic year and outline efforts underway in 2011.

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Understanding the ACCY111 experience

Philip Colquhoun
This project was aimed at increasing student success in the BCA core paper ACCY 111 across all learning goals as well as improving overall success in the course. We wanted to know which students fail ACCY 111 and why, as a first step to introducing additional teaching & learning resources to increase student success in the ACCY 111 and retention in the BCA degree. Over the past ten years 35% of ACCY 111 students have failed to pass the course, with many students failing to complete the course. Over the years SACL has introduced a number of changes to ACCY 111 in an effort to increase student performance. Changes introduced include the peer learning PASS scheme, continuous formative and summative feedback, more tutorials, workshops, more internal assessment items, specific Maori/Pacific tutorials and the use of online tests and resources. These changes, many of which are resource intensive, together with various teaching teams have had little overall impact on student success rates. We surmised that the low success rate has multiple causes and sought to identify these. In particular we wanted to know the characteristics of students that fail, when do which students disengage from the course, why they disengage, and how student performance in ACCY111 differs from that in other BCA Core papers.

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Journaling and Blackboard blogging to encourage reflectiion on skills for university study

Moira-Clare Donovan
Skills for University Study is a core paper in the one trimester Certificate of University Preparation programme. (CUP - CUP is not being offered in 2012)
One of the techniques used to encourage CUP students to notice what study skills they are gaining, improving or still require, is a personal journal. Students are asked to reflect on their study journey and to post their reflections into a Blackboard blog at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks. Because reflection is capable of turning all experience into useful learning, students are encouraged to participate by receiving marks for their reflections. These total 15% of the total marks for the Skills for University Study paper.
This presentation will describe what happens in practice in the CUP programme, provide examples, describe how we have modified and improved this aspect of our course and also mention some of the theoretical research that supports metacognition as a valid method to improve learning.

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Te Kawa a Maui Cultural Atlas - Exploring a Landscape Pedagogy

Ocean Mercier(p), Peter Adds(p), Tahu Wilson, Meegan Hall, and Maria Bargh
Since 2010 students and staff at Maori Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, have been developing an electronic cultural atlas of student research. Parts of the atlas are available online at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/maori/atlas/. About 200 students from eight different undergraduate M‚ori Studies courses have been introduced to mapping components in their assignments. One of those activities involved producing a class-wide geo-biographical Google Earth map of some key historical figures in Maori society. Another activity juxtaposed student research on historic and contemporary land occupations with a map of iwi boundaries - producing a visual counter-narrative to anti-protest sentiment in national media. We will explore how undergraduate students contributing work to the project exemplifies the high impact activity that Kuh's (2008) research suggests will enhance student engagement and increase student success.

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Maple TA: A testing and learning tool for mathematics

Peter Donelan(p), Steven Archer(p), Mark Johnston, Mohammed Daher, and Christopher Ball
Maple TA is an e-learning and assessment tool especially tailored for mathematics courses. It allows for the creation of a broad range of question types, with randomized components, and uses the powerful Maple computer algebra software to automatically evaluate answers.. The primary goal has been to provide students with a source of practice for their mathematical skills and knowledge, from which they can get rapid feedback and help. We have trialled the package on several courses and are starting to build experience in what works and what doesn't from both the instructor's and the student's perspective. We provide a brief introduction to what Maple TA can do, how we are using it and where we see its future at Victoria.

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Anywhere, Anytime - Creating a Mobile Indigenous Language Platform

Rawiri Toia, Tabitha McKenzie, Hiria McRae
A group of academics from Victoria University of Wellington have developed an innovative approach to teacher professional development. In response to limited teaching reliever numbers in schools and heightened by a dearth of language specialists a model using video podcasts, online support and in-school facilitation was developed to advance areas of Maori language and language acquisition amongst teachers. This presentation will highlight this innovative approach to in-school facilitated language development and report on outcomes of the project to date.

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Video captured and edited by Roger Ward, ITS Teaching Services